Fergus met her gaze. "He just might."
The secretiveness drove her crazy. While she didn't slow down her pace, she did growl out, "Just tell me what's going on. By not saying anything, you're making it worse."
"All I can say right now is that we're not exactly sure of Alistair's location."
Her heart skipped a beat. "I thought he was doing research?"
"Aye, he was. But something went wrong. Now, come on. The sooner we get you to the underground bunker of the Protector's building, the sooner you can learn what happened." He pierced her with a fierce gaze, and she nodded. He added, "Can you run for a wee while, lass?"
Despite the sudden frog in her throat, she managed, "I think so."
"Good. Then let's go."
As Kiyana ran, a dragon-shifter pulling her along, worry crept over her. Something had obviously gone very, very wrong to make the reputably level-headed MacKenzie twin so cautious and frantic.
Stop it, Kiyana. Don't worry until you have all the facts. Maybe you can help. Right, maybe she could help somehow. And if there was a way for her to assist Alistair, she would do her bloody best to help. The stories always had the men swooping in to rescue the women, but she wasn't the sort to sit back and let others take all the responsibility. Alistair may not be her mate-slash-husband yet, but he would be. And so if she needed to save him, she'd do whatever it took.
~~~
Twenty minutes later, Kiyana sat in a room, drumming her fingers on the table, when the door finally opened. Finn, Fergus, and the clan's head doctor, Layla, walked in. Kiyana stood and rushed to Finn. "What's going on? Is Alistair okay? I can't help unless I know the details."
A sad smile crept over Finn's face. "I'm not sure you can help, lass, but I'll tell you what we know. Sit, please."
Finn's demeanor made her wary. She'd seen both the charming and strong leader versions of him, but never the sad, gentle one.
Kiyana sat and raised her brows in question. Finn sighed and said, "Alistair was working on a secret project for us, one concerning a tiny device. Despite every precaution being taken, he was somehow exposed to a chemical compound found inside the blasted thing. His dragon woke instantly, and from what we can tell, he ran from his research lab clawing his head and shouting something about not letting his dragon win."
She froze. "Where is he now?"
Fergus jumped in. "That's the bugger of it all, we don't know. He must've tossed his phone and isn't carrying a tracking device. However, there's another piece of information one of the clan members overheard from Alistair, as he ran away. And that was him saying he wouldn't let his dragon force you, and he would fight his beast to the death rather than allow him to harm you."
She shook her head. "I don't understand. Alistair wouldn't hurt me."
Layla grimaced. "Usually, aye, he wouldn't. But the chemical compound is something the doctors on Stonefire have been studying for a wee while. The effects seem to vary from dragon-shifter to dragon-shifter. And in Alistair's case, it's probably made his dragon violent and unpredictable."
First his dragon being drugged silent, and now his beast going berserk? Alistair had suffered enough with the death of his former girlfriend and didn't need more pain.
There had to be a way to help him, there just had to. "But that's just because of the frenzy, right? If I join him and participate, then he might return to normal."
Finn shook his head. "I won't risk it, lass. From what we can tell, his dragon wants to harm you as he claims you, and I won't allow it."
She swallowed, doing her best not to let her split-second fear show on her face. "What do you mean he wants to harm me? Tell me the specifics."
Finn scowled. "Then I won't sugar-coat it, Kiyana. Alistair was shouting he'd never allow his dragon to cut you as he fucked you. And that is definitely not the Alistair Boyd I grew up with. Until we can find some sort of remedy—someone already tried what we thought was the universal cure by shooting him with a dart and it failed—you have to remain here."
Kiyana would sort through her feelings later. If she let fear or sadness creep into her mind, she'd never be able to focus. And she needed to keep relatively calm and collected. Otherwise, she'd never have her Alistair back. "But he may never return to normal. The other dragon clans don't share easily, and Alistair could die before they do."
Curiosity flared in Finn's eyes. "How do you know that?"
She replied, "Alistair mentioned it a bit, and I've been researching the topic. If we have any chance of saving him, you need to talk to Honoria Wakeham as soon as possible."
Lochguard's leader blinked. "Honoria? As in one of Skyhunter's recently appointed co-leaders? Why?"
She waved a hand. "All that matters is that Honoria found a way to reach out and communicate with other clans in the western half of America. Even if it's just a matter of asking those clans for a solution, it's a start and better than us sitting here and ho-humming about how Alistair is doomed."
Fergus studied her. "You're not acting the way I thought you would, lass."
Kiyana sat up taller. "I don't care about that. We need Honoria's help, as well as Stonefire's and any other dragon clan you can talk to." She looked at Layla. "I'm assuming you have a sample of this substance and are, or have, already analyzed it?" The doctor bobbed her head. "Good. Then we can share what we know."
No one spoke for a few beats, and it finally dawned on Kiyana that maybe she'd crossed a line. She was still a guest on Lochguard's lands, for one. And two, she was a human from the DDA, and dragons didn't always like being ordered about by DDA employees.
She was about to state her case about only wanting to help Alistair when Finn spoke once more. "I'll reach out to Skyhunter. Layla, get everything ready to share with any clans willing to help us. And Fergus, you stay with Kiyana and find out what else she knows, or suggestions that may help." He finally found her gaze again. "Once all of this is over, you and I will have a rather long chat, lass."
Kiyana didn't slump her shoulders; instead, she merely nodded. She may know a lot about dragon-shifters, but she didn't know all of Lochguard's laws or rules. If she was violating some of them, she'd face the consequences later.
However, she couldn't just abandon Alistair. Especially since if he'd found a solution to his project, about how clans could better talk with one another, he might already be in recovery.
Alistair may not be able to reach out to other clans and make suggestions to Finn, but Kiyana could.
This time, she wouldn't allow someone else to die because of a lack of cooperation between clans. Even if she had to pull every string she had inside the DDA, she'd do it. Alistair deserved to live after the tragedy he'd gone through, and Kiyana was determined to ensure he came out the other side in one piece.
Chapter Nine
Alistair was losing the battle with his dragon.
Even now, his dragon roared inside his head, shouting, I want our true mate. She should be branded, fucked, and impregnated. She is ours, no one else's. And I will find her and make sure she knows she belongs to us and only us.
He'd long given up trying to reason with his beast and simply crouched on the floor of a cave, hoping the chains he'd grabbed on his way off the clan held.
Normal ones wouldn't, but they were strong and would hold unless a dragon-shifter was willing to shift and shatter bones in the process.
Although given the way his beast demanded to fuck and brand Kiyana with their name burned into her arm, his dragon might be willing to risk breaking bones to get to her.
I want her, now. She is ours. Stop denying us what is ours. Men have touched her before, and she must forget. Forget all about them. She will only know us, our name, and nothing else.
Images of Kiyana being strapped to a table and a hot poker to her arm made Alistair's stomach flip.
Rationally, he knew it wasn't his dragon's true nature. The bloody drugs had messed with his beast, to the point nothing short of some sort of cure would help.
He
had faith in Finn finding one, but if it came to the choice between keeping Kiyana safe or taking his own life to protect her, he would take his own life.
Fuck, his life had turned shitty all of a sudden. And all because one of his staff hadn't double-checked the seal and filter of the special case he'd been using to study the Dragon Knights' device.
His dragon roared and managed to shift their fingers into talons. Alistair forced his beast back into a mental prison, unsure of how much longer he could keep it up. It hadn't even been a day, and he was past exhaustion into some state he didn't even know how to describe.
If Finn and his clan didn't find a solution soon, Alistair would have to sacrifice himself to save everyone else, especially Kiyana. He refused to go rogue.
Even from inside the mental prison, his dragon's shouts rang in his mind. No, no, NO.
His beast burst from the invisible prison and slammed Alistair into a corner, turning the tables and making him the captive.
He did his best to break free—pushing, shoving, pounding with all this might—but Alistair couldn't get the walls to budge.
He'd barely tried all those methods before he could do nothing but watch in horror as his dragon shifted, not caring that the chains and cuffs broke their forelimbs and back legs as their shape changed into that of a dragon.
Because the full shift was enough force to split the metal. Which meant as soon as their bones healed in a week—even if somewhat poorly due to not being set—his dragon would hobble if need be to find Kiyana and do unspeakable things to her.
Alistair had one week, only one fucking week, to think of a plan. Because no matter what it took, even if it cost his own life, he wouldn't allow that to happen.
So as his dragon thrashed their tail and did his best to creep along the floor to the nearest water source, Alistair sat down inside his prison and started thinking of possible solutions. This time, he didn't want to fail. Yes, he'd do what needed to be done to protect Kiyana, but he'd lost one female before and he sure as hell didn't want to lose another.
There had to be a way to win over his beast. There just had to.
~~~
Kiyana tried to ignore the tall, imposing form of Iris Mahajan behind her, so she could focus on the barely legible words in the book in front of her. However, even with the woman being silent, Kiyana could feel the dragonwoman's dark eyes on the back of her head.
Play nice, Kiyana. She's just doing her job. While she didn't think Alistair would make it through the clan and into the archive building without someone catching him, Finn wanted to be prepared. Which meant Kiyana had a guard or two with her at all times.
Iris was the least of her worries, though. It'd been nearly a day, and no one had yet found Alistair.
On top of that, even with Kiyana receiving regular updates from Finn, no one had unearthed anything to help cure him, either.
Including Kiyana.
Closing her eyes for a few seconds, she tried to push down her frustration. Kiyana hated feeling powerless, unable to contribute in any way. Until she could find something meriting the attention of the DDA director—she'd already tapped all of her trusted DDA contacts to no avail—all she could do was stay safe and continue her research on more long-term methods of assistance.
Surely there had to be something she could use from one of the books to improve communication and alliances. After all, dragon-shifters hadn't always been isolated, and she was determined to find out the reason why.
Opening her eyes again, she concentrated on the page of dense text once more. Research was how she could help Alistair, even if it was only to carry out his dream. Wondering about this or that would accomplish nothing.
The book, A History of Dragons from the fall of Rome until 1900, had mentioned a few times how the dragon clans had once been united across the world. She had yet to read any specifics, though. Of course, she had only made it through the year 1200 C.E. and still had seven hundred more years to comb through.
Undeterred, she scanned down, looking for anything related to unity.
About twenty pages later, she paused at the section's title: “The Dettifoss Gathering, Iceland.”
In the past, gatherings had been more important and played more significant roles in the daily lives of dragon-shifters. Combine that with the fact the author had yet to mention any gatherings for the last hundred or so years, and it was most likely important.
Kiyana switched to reading instead of skimming:
Many believe the Dettifoss Gathering to be one of the biggest assemblies of dragon clans in history. Representatives from every clan in the Northern Hemisphere met to discuss future ties. After six weeks of negotiations, the Dettifoss Assembly was born. The dragon clans continued to meet every two years to share information, settle intra-clan disputes, and other items that have been lost to history.
The Assembly survived for a few hundred years and eventually included clans from the Southern Hemisphere as well. However, the dawn of human European colonialism slowly destroyed the alliances as the dragon clans in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific battled new enemies and focused on their survival above all else.
Several attempts have been made to restart a similar Assembly, but due to the overreaching rules and laws passed by the various human governments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the dragon clans have been unable to accomplish it.
Kiyana stopped reading. Ideas swirled through her head, but she needed to check something first before fleshing them out. Turning in her chair, she blurted to Iris, "Have you heard of the Dettifoss Assembly?"
Iris's brows came together. "Aye, although I'm not sure why you're asking me about it."
Turning all the way around, she asked, "Does everyone learn about it in school? Or are you a special case?"
Iris shrugged one shoulder. "On Lochguard, we spent a few days learning about it as teenagers, and another day practicing our own Assembly. However, I can't speak for any of the other clans on whether they do the same or not."
Standing, Kiyana closed the distance to the dragonwoman. "Is there a way I can ask some of the other British clans if they study it, too? Maybe even the Irish one in Glenveagh National Park as well? You know, the one with the female leader."
Iris searched her gaze. "Care to tell me why? I won't waste their time without a good reason."
Kiyana burned to go and do something, anything, even if it didn't provide an instant solution for Alistair. The idea burning in her head might help him, might not. But even if not, it might help others from avoiding a similar fate.
No. She wasn't going to think about what could happen to Alistair if no cure was found. She believed in positive thoughts and wouldn't change that about herself now. Especially since the dragon-shifters in the UK had overcome great obstacles in recent years. They could do it again this time, too.
Regardless, Kiyana wanted to widen the net of potential information sources. She needed to find out how many dragon-shifters knew about the Dettifoss Assembly before she could formulate more of a plan to bring it back.
However, she couldn't force her way into the head Protectors building and then make someone reach out to other clans.
She'd have to spend a few minutes answering Iris's questions if she wanted the help. "If a good number of dragon clans have heard of the Dettifoss Assembly, it's possible they can bring it back. And I know there are barriers and roadblocks. But just listen for a second." Iris bobbed her head, and Kiyana continued, "If it turns out the Assembly is mostly common knowledge, then there's a tie of nostalgia to it. Often this is useful when it comes to public relations and negotiations, as many people think fondly back on those time. While, of course, it would be different and more modern now, it's a starting point. And having common ground to work with can go a long way in changing people's minds and slowly convincing them it could work."
"While admirable, what you propose will take too much time to help Alistair."
Her heart squeezed, and somehow Kiyana ignored i
t. "I know, but this is something he wanted to accomplish. And if I can possibly help others in the future, it's a good use of my time." She hesitated, and then added something she hadn't shared with any of the dragon-shifters, "Besides, if I can confirm the Dettifoss Assembly is widespread knowledge, then it gives me a reason to reach out to the DDA Director to discuss the idea with her. Whilst doing that, I can ask and see if she'll help Alistair by reaching out to other DDA directors around the world."
Iris didn't miss a beat. "I didn't think they did that."
"I can't speak for all directors, but the UK one does. The depth of her connections around the world isn't widely known, but she has them. Also, when Rosalind Abbott assumed office, she asked for ideas to help improve dragon relations. This qualifies, so she'll talk with me soon after I make the request."
Iris's expression didn't change from her cool, collected one. "Say the other clans have heard of the Dettifoss Assembly. And say the DDA director is open to supporting the idea. If I recall properly, the Assembly was ended by human interference. That hasn't gone away, so what's your solution to that? Even if the DDA Director in the UK is on board, she alone won't be enough to accomplish what you're suggesting."
For a split second, Kiyana wished Iris was less cautious and could be persuaded easily. Of course, if that were the case, she wouldn't be the skilled Protector she was.
Taking a deep breath, Kiyana replied, "I'm sure we can think of something. The DDA Director in the UK has been secretly working on deals and information exchange agreements with other countries in Europe, the Commonwealth countries, and even America. I know that doesn't include a large portion of the map, but it's a start. Why can't there be a United Nations-like institution for dragon oversight departments?" Iris opened her mouth, but Kiyana pushed on. "I know, I know, it would be better if dragons had true freedom. However, we're not there yet. So let's work with what we can do now and then address bigger issues as we go."
The Dragon's Discovery (Lochguard Highland Dragons Book 6) Page 10
